Investigation Uncovers City Employees Driving On Your Dime

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — While you spend nearly $5 a gallon at the pump on your own car, a CBS2 News investigation has uncovered some public employees taking a free ride at your expense.

For the past four months our undercover cameras have focused on some of the thousands of taxpayer-funded cars that we that found on the streets.

You have probably seen them yourself with a city, county or state seal, and wondered whether they were on official business or something else — or if they are even necessary?

In one instance we caught a guy getting a ride to work in a city car and you are paying for it. In another women go to lunch with their car and gas paid for by taxpayers.

The City of Los Angles has nearly 2,100 passenger vehicles. They cost more than $51 million with an additional $3.5 million just to operate and maintain last year.

Some cars are permanently assigned to city council members and various city departments. Others are checked out for daily use through the city motor-pool, where employees with permission can temporarily use a car to conduct city business.

Many of the cars are white hybrids like one that we found on the streets. The only problems were that the man driving it way not a city employee and he was not on city business.

Behind the wheel was Raul Gonzalez and the passenger was his wife Hilda Garcia.

She works in the mayor’s office as a program manager in the gang reduction unit. In March we followed them the 12 miles from their home in Highland Park to Gonzalez’s job at a school in the Wilshire District, where he got out and went to work — and you paid for it.

In fact last year the city spent $660,000 of your money on gas for its passenger cars.

Garcia used some of that gas on another day when we caught her dropping her husband off at work. This time she was driving, but again using a city car.

According to the L.A. City Municipal Code, it is unlawful to operate these vehicles for any purpose other than for official business and the policy states that only city employees are authorized to drive city owned vehicles.
But when I spoke with Garcia, she couldn’t recall the incident.

David Goldstein: “He drove the car and you were in the passenger seat and he drove to the school.”

Hilda Garcia: “I don’t remember that. I don’t remember that.”

David Goldstein: “We have it on videotape. Was that for city business?

Hilda Garcia: “Well I would love to see the videotape.”

The footage can be viewed in the adjoining video. There is no denying it, but she did again…

“I would never let anybody drive the city vehicle, that’s not authorized,” Garcia said.

…And again. “I’ve never had anyone drive the city car other than myself.”

According to the motor pool logs we obtained, Garcia uses the city car over and over. She checked one out 85 times last year, sometimes for days at a time for a total of 181 days. This year we videotaped the car parked outside her house overnight and on weekends.

But logs show that Garcia is not the only city employee who uses a pool vehicle like a personal rent a car. Dozens checked out cars for days, weeks or months, even though policy states that “vehicles checked out from the motor pool must be returned on the same day.”

Even then there could be abuses. We followed city employees in a motor pool car roughly 15 miles from Downtown L.A. to Rosemead. They went to a restaurant where they sat and had lunch.

“The taxpayers are paying for your transportation for a personal lunch. Is that right?” I asked.

They didn’t have anything to say.

But they were not the only city employees we found using a city car to go to lunch.

City Controller Wendy Gruel has audited vehicle usage. Her report last year found inadequate oversight.

In her report Gruel recommended eliminating 400 vehicles and using mileage reimbursements similar to the private sector to conservatively save two million dollars a year.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he tried to cut some of the city fleet a few years ago but the council resisted. However, he defends the cars saying sometimes they might be cheaper than reimbursing employees for mileage.

“I agree these cars need to be used for an official purpose, they can’t be misused,” Villaraigosa said.

After we showed city officials what we uncovered, they said they would tighten safeguards to make sure city cars and gas are used for city business. Not personal use.

David Goldstein

Luis, nice try but we know that you are just trying to protect your mom & dad(in this story).

Obviously Mayor V., they CAN and WILL be abused, because she works for you. And what about all the free tickets you took, to many events(Laker games, etc.)? You set a GREAT example, didn’t you? Oh, but you finally got caught.

It amazes me, how these politicians think we are so stupid and that we will believe everything they tell us.

“Ron
Most taxpayers would disagree with you !! You don’t filter corruption & say this is not worth printing. I am sure there MAY be many hard working, honest government workers, but we taxpayers are concerned about the CORRUPT ones that steal OUR money.
This is not PETTY, if it is any stealing of the taxpayers money. I doubt that you would allow someone to steal hundreds of dollars from your pocket and say no problem, simply because it wasn’t in the thousands.”

Ron,

California is in a 20+ billion dollar deficit. We spend $10 billion a year as a state on illegal immigrants. A few dollars at the pump, looks petty to me. FAIL

Yes, my money is being stolen, and then given to illegal immigrants who don’t contribute to our economy. Just a comparison, they receive all kinds of hand outs from our government that we all pay for. So stop bashing this lady for a few bucks at the pump and focus on our real problems. As for corruption i agree, the City of Bell is a good example, that is worth tackling. I admire your take on government corruption I just wish you would point your voice in the right direction.

You are not the only one amazed. I’ve been amazed at the local governmental spinelessness almost every day of the 20 years that I’ve lived here in L.A.

Fortunately, I come from a city (thank God not Lost Angeles) where if a free lunch (or free ride) such as this one had ever been made public, a tremendous horde of “p*ssed off” tax payers would be at the doors to city hall demanding accountability and eventual resignations. That would be Philadelphia. Read the papers there and see.

With permission from the top, I used a coubty vehicle to take a dying 35 year old mom home to die with her husband and kids. I GET IT! I used my own money to fuel up the vehicle and I have picture to prove it. Go to DiscussFreely dot com to see picture and story. Incredible cover ups from the near top!!!

While I agree with the content and tone of the article, does anyone he realize that Hilde Garcia was carpooling with her husband, thereby getting a car OFF the streets of LA for a day. While her methods are certainly suspect, her action (had she chosen to claim she was ridesharing/carpooling) may be commendable. Anything to get a few cars off the streets of LA.

Nothing new. I don’t know why people are so surprised by this. And its not just LA doing this. All cities do. Buena Park is another. And the fired their city manager, let him keep his car and allowed him to still go into the yard and get free gas! Honest to God story. Its ridiculous but they can get away with it until big gov. Does something. They won’t though

John Smithee- it doesn’t matter if they were ‘carpooling’ or not, that’s not the point of the story. If they wanted to carpool, great, but they should do it in THEIR car, not have us paying for it. It’s not commendable at all, when they’re wasting taxpayer money. We all have moral choices to make, everyday, and some ignore what’s right for what’s easy. THAT is the point.

Im glad to see that someone has brought this to the publics attention – maybe the mayor will have some pull with the council that is rejecting his inquiries now and make them accountable for their behavior….

@johnsmithee.. then why did Hilda Garcia deny the fact that her husband was driving the City vehicle? Cllearly, she was lying. I am so glad she got fired, I am ashamed of the CIty practices that have gone on even with the clear instructions that prevent abuses like this. Like the report saya, it is mostly the Mayor’s staff and Upper Lever employees who get the car privelieges and abuse them. We, the lower level employees, have to catch the trains, buses or drive to get to work, We do not even get free parking in City-owne d paring faciilities. Hard as it is to believe, most of us CIty employees have the hardworking and honest ethics that our mayor and other corrupt officials will never have… and they can not take that away from us.

Di anyone Look into David Goldstein(‘s Bad habit’s of $5.0 for this and a $10.00 for a 50ty while you shot the video. Who really care’s that some public employee is using tax payer’s money? After all the THIEVES are in Washington, DC; they are using TRILLIONS of our TAX money. The only reason you have not showed that film on U-2?, is maybe there is more money in porn/or blackmail which is a good 3yr’s to 8yrs worth in FEDERAL JAIL…….

Mayor Villarogoisa is a hypocrite! Years ago when he was having an affair with Mirthala how do you think he was transported over to Studio City after hours? Of course with his city paid vehicle (for official business) and his security detail (more out of pocket money)! But then again, “The affair in the city takes precedence over the affairs of the city”. And also would not the fine(s) from the Ethics Committee also prove that the mayor was using his city paid transportation for private use? After all Governor Brown walks and drives his own vehicle, why can’t the mayor catch the bus from the Getty House (city paid housing for the mayor) to city hall? Oh wait, was not the mayor also having Mirthala over to the Getty House? Now the taxpayers were also financing his affair…..get a room with your own personal money! It starts from the top!

You hit the nail on the head! It’s getting worse and it’s spreading from city job to city job. A couple of months ago it was DWP employees hanging out at strip clubs and drinking on company time and then driving company vehicles. I see why everyone with city jobs are always complaining about who’s going to pay for what, police protection, funerals, new development, etc! They sure don’t want to do it because they want to use the money for themselves. They said the one girl that allowed her husband to drive the vehicle was fired. What about the other group of girls that drove 40 miles out of the city just to have lunch at a Mexican Restaurant. They need to go as well!

Great reporting. A four month investigation into the thousands of cars using tax-payer money. What happened to the rest of them. If the powers-that-be don’t know what is going on–then maybe they shouldn’t be in power. The few (in this case,thousands)who have no regard for breaking the law;make it hard for the many who respect and obey the law. Somebody once said, that’s the way of the world. I’m inclined to agree.

the boring report on city car abuse turns my stomach at kcbs’ unprofessionalism. ambush journalism should be limited to inept news staffs lacking skills to perform serious investigative work. but then, ambush journalism appears to be your stock in trade.

singling out one person by name indicates the poor research skills of your staff as a whole. then, gloating about one woman losing her livelihood owing in part to this story marks a nadir in your work. the public deserves an explanation of this dogpile on a single named malefactor.

It was a happy ending to the story guys….the major fired Hilda Garcia. aka: the fat idiot who didn’t know about what was going on and wanted to see the video…great choice of words. She have been smart and not even said anything.

I can’t believe you got a person fired for something so petty. While their are parolee and people on probation living in neighborhoods, gang members and criminals selling drugs, all of them collecting welfare. that should be the first step on our city tax payers money. not hard working gang reduction city employees. I’m quite sure city employees uses the city vehicles for personal business. and i am quirt sure that is some shady stuff going on at kcal9. wasting kcal9’s money. but it is minor. so is this. please focus on the big issues next time so i can have some respect for this program.

Jonathan, the point of the story is that the cars (and gas) are being used for personal business–but we’re paying for it. Gas is stil over $4.00/gallon. It’s hard enough to pay for my own gas, I don’t want to be having to pay for some city employee to go to lunch, too. Minor? I scarcely think so.

Great report and very pleased to know Hilda Garcia got fired..this will send a message to all city employees if you abuse the system you will loose your job i’m just angry they did not do this earlier fire all those other employees as well who got caught driving around to.

David Goldstein is a blessing to L.A. If there were more like him investigating the abuse and corruption in L.A. we’d be much better off. The misusef vehicles points to one culprit: management!! If the managers of this city were watching and concerned about the taxpayers money, this would not happen. But complacency, laziness, stupidity, creep in on our dime. Top to bottom restrutring and we could get along with 30% less government. But not as long as “I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine” is the song of the day. You go David Goldstein and get um!!

What a tacky story–you’ve gone after low-level bureaucrats who’s misconduct hasn’t had a consequential impact on the City budget and failed to identify real sources of waste or corruption. I wonder how many of the commenters on this thread are using work time and equipment to peruse the internet. How many of you haven’t taken a long lunch, or skipped out early? The vilification of public employees while turning a blind eye to corporate and elected official corruption that costs us millions and billions is both contrived and deceptive.
Is it wrong to take a city car to Rosemead for lunch? Yes, I think we all know that. Is this news? Barely.

Brian – Last time I checked, spanish is a language, not an ethnicity. But you are right in one sense: white mayors = white corruption, black mayors = black corruption, and latino/hispanic mayors = hispanic/latino corruption…..hmmmmm, you think?!!!! Thanks Captain Obvious!!!

It’s news, but the approach is tacky, particularly the part where the reporter does the ambush interview. Los Angeles suffers from lack of management in a lot of departments, not the least of which is Recreation and Parks. There appears to be very little oversight of local management; this is a problem because the city is very spread out, and there are government buildings all over the place.

What’s disappointing is that CBS, like so many other news organizations, concentrates on the little fish and leaves the institutional corruption alone. For example, ask yourself whether you get good food at a fair price at LAX, and then look at how the Airport Commission couldn’t fire Host due to political maneuvering by lobbyists aimed at the City Council.

That would be a big story, although it has been tackled by LA Weekly on a smaller basis. Here’s betting that KCBS won’t tackle it because that would be taking on the big boys and would risk making some real enemies.

Bob G., you’re damn right it’s news and any news that exposes government corruption is important to ME & many other taxpayers.

What do you want KCBS to do, overlook this egregious act of thievery, simply because it’s not the institutional corruption that you rightly point out? Have you tried emailing KCBS, to request that they investigate the corruption that you speak of? You might be surprised that they may look into it, unless you are only an advocate for the little corrupt fish.

Are city employees exempt from paying taxes? Don’t think so, so essentiallly they are in a unique situation of paying taxes that pay for their salaries and fuel for those hybrid fuel efficient cars. Too bad the report omitted the fact that many city employess use their own cars and bring work home without charging any time for it.

Tom Clark, if you are not happy with your government job, then quit and find out how tough it is, in the real world !!! We are not interested in the city employees that use their own cars, pay taxes and bring work home because many of the private company employees have done this for years.

But if we remove 1 CORRUPT taxpayer sucking, government employee at a time, it is a tremendous accomplishment. Because the UNIONS coddle and protect them, regardless of the corrupt acts they commit.

You are very ignorant. What compelled you to think that I was unhappy with my job? Did you even read my post relavitve to the context of the subject? I think that you are unhappy with your job. Too bad, jumping on the bandwagon won’t make you happy! Sorry for your ignorance!! Good luck to you! You could go to college and get an education. I hope you do!

Forget about how our government is paying 13 billion a month on a war that keeps our economy in a defiicit mode and your concerned about people going to lunch while private sector employees can go golfing at private clubs and write off the expense on the tax payer’s diime and you pay for that! Ignorance is bliss!!! Congratulations!

I DID go to college, got an education, a degree, very happy with my life, don’t steal from the taxpayers and I am obviously less ignorant than you.

How did we get on the subject of war? That IS a whole different discussion and NOT part of Hilda Garcia’s JOY RIDE through the streets of L.A.

Are you trying to say, since Hilda Garcia pays taxes, she is entitled to steal taxpayer money, by using her city car for personal use? That is like the disgruntled worker, that feels that he deserves a raise, but steals from his employer, because he has not received that raise. Regardless of your flawed reasoning, I am sure there are many taxpayers, that would disagree with you and Hilda.

And as far as the private sector employees, playing golf at private clubs and writing the expense off, on the taxpayers dime, that is for the I.R.S. to look into. You sound like you’re jealous and looking for excuses, to justify city/government employee’s stealing, on the taxpayers dime.

I know you’re happy with your job, because you know that you couldn’t cut it in the private sector. Where you ACTUALLY have to work or you will be fired or let go, during periods of recession.

Government employees should adhere to a higher standard of values because they are being paid by tax payer’s money. Using a government vehicle for personal trips should not be tolerated. All of use should find ways for the government to save money because government resources are limited.

It may be one or two that got caught on camera, but I’m sure that’s a drop in the bucket!

Maybe if they get rid of all the bad apples (aka Villaraigosa’s lackeys) 9-1-1 operators wouldn’t have to take 36 unpaid days off.

9-1-1 operators have been taking furloughs since 2009! How about exposing how badly this shortage of operators affects the response of police & fire? How about finding out why the city council and the mayor do not exempt 9-1-1 operators from furloughs?

And what birdbrain has the audacity to decide that 9-1-1 operators are not “essential” personnel?

If there’s nobody to answer the call- the police & fire department wouldn’t know where to go!

Someone needs to follow Mr. Goldstein and his film crew for a week or two and see how much illegal and improper incidents they commit, He’s making a name for himself on the back of public employees. There are bad apples everywhere.

Thank you David Goldstein for the report. Some City of Los Angeles employee abuse privileges all the time. I am glad this employee at Mayor’s got fired. Some take the city cars into the Santa Clarita area! The other day I was near Glendale and almost got nailed by some asian woman talking on her cell phone while driving in a city car and that car said Los Angeles Zoo! She must have been in a hurry leaving Yoshinoa. Pitiful.

If you want to investigate someone…you should take a look at Raul. Before he got transfered from one LAUSD school to another he stopped doing is job. He worked at one school as a night janitor but rarely lifted a finger. As soon as he knew he was going to be transfered, because of LAUSD budget cuts, he stopped cleaning. The school went without trash being picked up or toilets being cleaned. He continued to show up for work every afternoon and watch TV until his shift ended at night. He is lazy. Both he and his wife live off our dime.

Hilda Garcia’s husband Raul is the one you should investigate. He works for LAUSD and went months without lifting a finger. When he found out his job was going to be transfered because of budget cuts he stopped doing his job. The school he worked at as an evening janitor went uncleaned. Toilets were not cleaned for weeks. No one did anything about it. He spent most of his time watching tv until his shift was over. He is lazy and living off my dime. The whole family is shady.

I’ve been a City employee with City of L.A. for awhile now, and while there have been a few publicized examples of employees exploiting City resources for personal reasons, I think the news coverage is a bit misleading and presumptious. Countless times, I have had to take a City car to do field visits or other day-long survey work as part of my job. On days when I’m out in the car, far away from the office on legitimate work for half the day or more, I’ve stopped for lunch breaks (which we don’t get paid for), while driving the City car. The alternative would be for me to drive all the way back to the office, wasting gas and my paid time, to eat my lunch before driving back out into the field. Other times, I’ve stopped for a dinner break on my way to a night meeting I have to staff, again, with the City car. I could easily be targeted by your news crew, implying that I’m taking a joy ride for free gas just to go get my lunch, when that’s not the case at all. As far as you know, the ladies who went to lunch in your video were heading to a meeting and got lunch on the way. While there are some employees who take advantage of their status as an employee on tax dollars, the vast majority of us are honest, hard workers who don’t. Things aren’t always as they appear. Healthy inquiry is important, but this news coverage seems to assume a lot and leave the impression that most employees are exploiting resources (and that’s just not true.) We already deal with attitudes from the public, assuming the worst and deal with getting yelled at, insulted, and criticized as individuals, — sweeping assumptions based on the bad actions of a few. You’re not covering the times when employees actually go the other direction with things and work countless hours of unpaid overtime (it happens quite a bit) and pay for gas out of pocket to fill the empty tank of a City car and not both to ask to get reimbursed (which I’ve personally done.) Maybe you could be a bit more balanced in your exploration of City employee behavior and choices.

Well put, the media can be misleading. They need to stop attacking the good hard working citizens that keep our cities, counties, and states rolling. Instead of pointing fingers at whoever they can for PETTY wasteful spending, they should be generating stories about the real wasteful spending. The greedy banks, the people who mooch off of our free government programs and don’t contribute anything back into our economic system, the people who send their money out of the country so it does not get recylced back into our economy, the corporations that were bailed out and invested their money in out sourcing when we have millions of Americans out of work, the damaged medical system, the over crowded prisons, the illegal immigrants taking jobs from our youth, the list goes on. They need to stop attacking the real hard working citizens of this country and attack the real problems.

Most taxpayers would disagree with you !! You don’t filter corruption & say this is not worth printing. I am sure there MAY be many hard working, honest government workers, but we taxpayers are concerned about the CORRUPT ones that steal OUR money.

This is not PETTY, if it is any stealing of the taxpayers money. I doubt that you would allow someone to steal hundreds of dollars from your pocket and say no problem, simply because it wasn’t in the thousands.

I the city of Riverside where I live, some city employees drive new Tahoe SUVs and ussually with one person in them, while telling the public to drive small cars and plan our trips. our gov has hijacked our cities and have taken abuse of power to new heights, they need to get rid of about half of them to start. the mayor of L.A. is an ebarrasement to latinos and an insult to everyone else.

I have a neighbor who brings a City car home everyday. He lives at 22300 Mandell St., Canoga Park. His car is home early most days. If City cars were be centralized garaged, costs could be reduced by at least 10%. Is the City exploring the City’s car olicy. I have sent this to Dennis Zine and the Mayor earlier this year, with no response.